Bright to the Wanderer

by Bruce Lancaster

"Crush the British!"- through the length of the land echoes the cry of the rebels, brave men who hurl their fortunes into jeopardy rather than live under the Crown's oppression. Into this rebellious turbulence plunges Gil Stensrood, the rebel leader with a price on his head- soldier, spy, Royal prisoner, gentle lover, merciless enemy- whom nothing but one woman's treachery can defeat.

Genres: Historical Fiction

451 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1942

About the author

Bruce Lancaster was born in Worcester, Massachusetts on August 22, 1896. He served in the U.S. Army along the Mexican border in 1916 and later in France. After the war he returned to school and received a B.A. from Harvard in 1918. He worked in administration and sales for nine years, after which he served in the U.S. Foreign Service as Vice-Consul to Kobe, Japan (1928-1932). Following his return to the United States he became assistant secretary to the board of governors of the Society of New York Hospitals, and began to write the novels which would make him famous. Most of his works are historical novels, including Guns of Burgoyne, Trumpet to Arms, and Blind Journey. He has also written historical non-fiction, such as From Lexington to Liberty (1955).

Reviews

[Tweety]

This book was sadly, just dead boring. It started out well, we had the tales of a family of a prominent judge traveling farther north into Canada and their troubles along the way. But it was a bit too easy. When they were forbidden to pass one fort, they went another way and were allowed to be near an army encampment. But they had little food. Guess what? The soldiers all ganged up and brought them and many others food, against Captain's orders! Then when getting a ferry across a nearby river, the army captain of that encampment wanted to keep their sled, once again strangers saved them and they didn't lose their means of transport once off the ferry. But other people did!

Another problem for me was that the book covered too much time, too quickly. I couldn't care about characters that one minute were only ten and the next they were all grownup and married while their parents who had been the main characters were now old and gray. The author should either have written several book all about this family, or just picked one generation. He made it much too confusing and I didn't enjoy the interesting parts enough to slog through all the dull bits.

I know next to nothing of Canadian history, so I was really looking forward to this. But even as a history book is isn't much use to me because he jumped about so much and expected the reader to know what he was talking about. Or maybe he expected me to pick it up from all the men droning on about the world and politics?

G By page 100 it's was still a G rating, I didn't get any farther since I was turning gray reading it. Very few swears and nothing else. REALLY, Nothing Else. Period.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good combination of history, characters, political difficulties. Definitely held my interest.

[Oliivia]

It was not very interesting. I did not ever finish it, and I never do that with books.